Emera Newfoundland and Labrador spokesman Jeff Myrick said the earlier easements will enable transmission lines to take electricity from the subsea cable landing at Point Aconi to the Woodbine substation southeast of Sydney.

There, the energy will connect to Nova Scotia Power’s existing grid, bringing power from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador to Nova Scotia.

The latest easements will permit a grounding line to run from the substation to a grounding station that is to be built on the coast at Big Lorraine, near Louisbourg.

The grounding station will only be used occasionally to offload direct current being carried by the transmission lines.

“It will be used to balance the load from a current perspective and used intermittently,” said Myrick.

“In the case of an interruption in one of the cables, that would act as a ground. It’s part of the emergency function of the system.”

Myrick said the grounding station will look like a wharf with a rock barrier. Rods will be sunk into the Atlantic Ocean seafloor inside the rock wall. Electricity that gets grounded will not have any effect on the ocean outside the barrier, he said.

The system has been approved under the Maritime Link’s environmental assessment, and the station was sited with input from area fishermen, said Myrick.

The latest round of expropriations involves discussions on location and compensation with 31 property owners, although four of the properties have unclear titles. Those properties are listed in an advertisement in local newspapers, including The Chronicle Herald, and online at energy.novascotia.ca/maritimelinkmap.

Anyone with an interest in the properties is asked to contact the provincial Energy Department by Aug. 26.

Most of the latest easements are for the grounding line, but six are along the corridor between Point Aconi and the Woodbine substation.

Myrick said they mostly follow previous easements, and property owners do not lose the land. An easement agreement allows the power company to put up poles and lines and to access the infrastructure for maintenance or other reasons.

The company does not expect to apply for any more large numbers of easement expropriations beyond the 31 that are pending.